Annual Report 2026 Awards
Every year the Vermont Historical Society gives out a number of awards, fellowships, and other program-related superlatives. The following were awardees and winners in FY 2026:
National History Day Best of Vermont:
Junior Division: Eden Kelly and Natalie Flannery, Main Street Middle School, group documentary, “The Women’s Army Corps: We’re in the Army Now”
Senior Division: Anning Wang, South Burlington High School, individual exhibit, “EXPOSURE: The Stolen Childhood Rediscovered Through the Lens.”
LLHSM AWARD OF EXCELLENCE:
Castleton 250th Anniversary Committee with special recognition to James Thatch for their program Ethan Allen in Castleton
Historical Society of Windham County for their County History Museum
Middletown Springs Historical Society for their Video History Series & Video Archives
AWARD OF MERIT:
Milton Historical Society for their program Making Connections
Westminster Historical Society for their Westminster Massacre 250th Anniversary Commemoration
INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Walter Sperr Fair Haven Historical Society
Hathaway Award
Travis Van Alstyne for his short film "Love of the Land"
Geiger Fellows
Phoebe Donn, St. Johnsbury Academy
Ali McFarland, University of Vermont
Sabrina Sheridan, Cornell University
Sydney Washburn, Barre
Vermont History Day Awards
Junior Group Documentary
First Place: “The Women’s Army Corps: We’re in the army now”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Natalie Flannery, Eden Kelly
Second Place: “Terror in the East End: Jack the Ripper and the Birth of Modern Forensics”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Marissa Earle-Centers, Louisa Ferreira
Third Place: “The Vermont Marble Company Wildcat Strikes of 1935”; Addison Northwest Supervisory District, Rebecca Coffey. Eliana Venables-Vogel, Beowulf Yarborough, Elke Yarborough, Emerys Yarborough
Junior Group Exhibit
First Place: “The History of the Transcontinental Railroad”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Ezra Blum, Avery Kilian
Second Place: “Love Canal”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Eliza Bakeman, Mai Huynh Parke
Third Place: “Freedom and Unity Vermont's reaction to Prohibition”; Main Street Middle School, Ben Parker. kiersten Briggs campbell, Emmett Hock
Junior Group Performance
First Place: “Counterculture in Vermont: "invasion" of the flower children”; Mill River Union High School, Tom Michael. Layn Macias, Eliza Ruck, Lilianna Williams
Junior Group Website
First Place: “The effects of the Civil War”; Main Street Middle School, Ben Parker. Eilidh Corbett, Winnie Liu
Second Place: “The Second-Wave of Feminism”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Scarlett Carr, Esther Moorman
Third Place: “One Friend: How Elizabeth Blackwell Changed the Medical Field for the Better”; Green Mountain Union High School, Suzette Chivers. Caylee Archambault, Bodhi Koske, Addisyn Wilkins
Junior Individual Documentary
First Place: “George F. Edmunds and the Pendleton Act”; Main Street Middle School, Ben Parker. Natalie Kass
Second Place: “Susan Ahn Cuddy”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Eliza Jayn Huckabay
Third Place: “The Impact of the Bixby Memorial Free Library”; Addison Northwest Supervisory District, Rebecca Coffey. Tess McGuire
Junior Individual Exhibit
First Place: “The Watergate Scandal”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Christian Wade
Second Place: “Revolution Reform in Firefighting: Reacting to the Vergennes fire of 1958”; Addison Northwest Supervisory District, Rebecca Coffey. Wilder Jacobson
Third Place: “The Renault FT: A Revolutionary Armored Vehicle That Ended Trench Warfare in WWI, Reformed Revolution, and Warfare in the 20th Century”; Main Street Middle School, Ben Parker. Vasiliy Synkov
Junior Individual Website
First Place: “Tommy Douglas and Canadian Healthcare Reform”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Madeleine Howard
Second Place: “Guerrillas to Governors: The Triumph of Revolution, the Tension of Reaction, and the Transformation of Reform.”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Saul Soria
Third Place: “Jeffrey Brace’s Reformed Life After Becoming a Free Man”; Lyndon Town School, Tyler Willis. Reese Fox
Junior Paper
First Place: “Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring: A Reaction to Nationalism and a Revolution in Modernism”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Abraham Rosenberg
Second Place: “The sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald on November 10th, 1975.”; Main Street Middle School, Dan Maguire. Rocco Nicolet
Third Place: “Abortion in Vermont: How Vermonters Gave Women Complete Autonomy Over Their Bodies”; Main Street Middle School, Ben Parker. Edith Taylor
Senior Group Documentary
First Place: “Erasing Little Italy: Urban Renewal and Vermont's Housing Legacy”; Vermont Commons School, Mark Cline Lucey. Quentin Lobenstine, Fiona McCormick
Second Place: “Lobotomy and Its Impacts”; South Burlington High School, Issac Cota. Naomi Chaulot, Tanis Sheehan
Third Place: “"They can't kill us all" The student Revolution, Deadly Reaction at Kent State, and the reform that followed”; Poultney High School, Keith Harrington. Emma Boyer, Abigail Rose
Senior Group Exhibit
First Place: “Jesse L. Brown and his Legacy”; South Burlington High School, Issac Cota. Henry Clark, Sean Dendinger
Second Place: “The Revolutionary Invention of Insulin”; Union 32, Kara Rosenberg. Kaitlin Irwin, Lily Kasulka
Third Place: “How Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five Started a Musical Revolution through a Reaction to Inner City Life”; Union 32, Kara Rosenberg. Lucas Fowler, Jackson Lamere
Senior Group Performance
First Place: “On the New Hampshire and New York Land Grants”; Essex High School, Christine Nold. Owen Kolovos, Vivien Liversedge
Senior Group Website
First Place: “Baroque Art”; South Burlington High School, Christine Nold. Semon Dahal, William Lee, Cyrus Lin, Zayd Musanovic, Ethan Ni
Second Place: “Rehabilitation Act of 1973”; Union 32, Mark Brown. Eneko Farr, Grace Noyes
Senior Individual Documentary
First Place: “Redefining Women's Work: The Debate over Female Employment during the Great Depression”; Union 32, Mark Brown. Isla Johnson
Second Place: “Marathon Woman: The Story of Kathrine Switzer”; South Burlington High School, Issac Cota. Lizzie Clark
Third Place: “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire”; South Burlington High School, Christine Nold. Samantha Dorman
Senior Individual Exhibit
First Place: “EXPOSURE: The Stolen Childhood Rediscovered Through The Lens”. South Burlington High School, Christine Nold. Anning Wang
Second Place: “Catherine the Great: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in Imperial Russia.”; Lyndon Institute, Nichole Berry. Amelia Cornelius
Third Place: “Act 128: The tax loophole that created the Precision Valley and brought life to a rural Vermont town”; Green Mountain Union High School, Suzette Chivers. Violet Haight
Senior Individual Website
First Place: “So it Goes: How WW2 Veteran Kurt Vonnegut Revolutionized Literature”; Addison Northwest Supervisory District, Rebecca Coffey. Georgia Kunkel
Second Place: “Elizabeth Blackwell”; South Burlington High School, Issac Cota. Addison Breault
Third Place: “Huda Sha’arawi: A Fight For Equality For Women in Egypt”; Union 32, Mark Brown. Susannah Harman
Senior Paper
First Place: “From Abolition to Biological Capital: The Use of Eugenics to Preserve Pre-Abolition Structures in the United States and Vermont”; Green Mountain Valley School, Grif Edwards. Perry Sloan
First Place: “From the Audubon Podium to the World Stage: The Global Afterlife of Malcolm X”; The Putney School, Patrick O'Connor. Anna Sennelius
Second Place: “Revolution in Regulation: Vermont’s Act 250”; Addison Northwest Supervisory District, Rebecca Coffey. Quincy Sabick
